Josephina
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Scott Amundsen
This movie is set in the 1950s. so I am not sure about the detail I am questioning here. When I was born in 1963, it was common practice to circumcise infant boys. However I remember that my Dad, who was born in 1928, was not circumcised; so my question remains: when did it become common practice?If most guys were uncircumcised at the time this film takes place, sharing the shower would have been a dead giveaway to the Gentiles in the school regarding their new classmate's religion.I don't know the answer but it strikes me as something that should have been addressed.
classicalsteve
We all have secrets, most often the concealing of a minor infraction. However, what if the secret concerns someone's identity or ethnicity among his or her peers? If the secret was revealed, would his opportunities be jeopardized? This is the plight David Green (Brendan Fraser in a fine performance) must face in "School Ties". In the 1950's, a prestigious college prep school, St. Matthews (modeled probably on Exeter Academy in New England) has been losing football games year after year, and the alumni is at their wits' ends. The alumni concoct an interesting strategy: put together a football scholarship and use it to compel an outstanding athlete to enroll in their school and improve their team.They find a crack-jack quarterback from Scranton, Pennsylvania, David Green, and compel him to attend their school for his senior year of high school. However, there's one catch: Green is Jewish, and St. Matthews is a private Anglican school where students are required to attend Christian services. Green decides to conceal his Jewish heritage and "play" along by attending services and hiding a Star of David necklace. He makes friends, and as the new quarterback, the football team becomes a success.However, Green's appearance at the school causes disruption in the tried-and-true storytelling device of "a stranger comes to town". He has knocked Charlie Dillon (Matt Damon in an outstanding supporting performance) out of the quarterback spot, and the latter will now play running back and blocker. Green becomes the star player. In one interesting scene, Dillon makes the crucial difference in a score but Green receives most of the credit. However, things continue to get worse for Dillon. His "girlfriend" Sally Wheeler (Amy Locane) begins to fall for Green at a school dance.Dillon has only one trump card to play against Green to undermine the latter's meteoric rise to the heights of school super-stardom, potentially the turning point of the story. A thoroughly compelling film from beginning to fade out. The cast is excellent with many young actors who will become name talent in their own right: Fraser, Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris O'Donnell. And the story asks the question: will ethnic prejudice or individual character win the day?
Josh Conradson
This movie has its comical points like how in the beginning David, played by Brendan Fraser, makes a crack about a bikers sister. However the film takes too much time to get to the main problem and it seemed as though the director had to wrap it up really quick due to the extensive amount of time spent opening the story and building up the friendship of the main characters. Then at the end many people hate the character of Rip for not speaking up to defend David at the student hearing despite having seen Charles, played by Matt Damon, cheat and laying the blame on David. But despite these issues I still enjoyed the film and plot as a whole but the ending could have easily been done better.
moonspinner55
"School Ties", written by Dick Wolf and Darryl Ponicsan from Wolf's story, seems as if it must be a remake of something (possibly with Sal Mineo or James MacArthur in the lead). Athletic, handsome young man in the mid-1950s, the son of a blue-collar railroad worker in Pennsylvania, receives a scholarship to play football at prestigious boys' prep school in Boston. He's Jewish but keeps his religion under-wraps, and for good reason: the other lads swap anti-Semitic gossip in the locker room (right before the Senior Mixer!) and another boy confidentially tells our hero that one must go along with the curriculum if he wants to succeed. This is the kind of movie that might have been extended from a short; the first hour's set-up is practically irrelevant. The screenwriters lazily stack the deck against Brendan Fraser's well-meaning protagonist, even giving prejudiced-pal Matt Damon a reason to expose the Jew: he stole his girl! The '50s atmosphere is laid on thickly, what with an opening rumble between the ducktails and the bikers in an alley; we aren't even spared the proverbial prank on the snooty French teacher (who caused a student to have the same classroom breakdown that Natalie Wood suffered in "Splendor in the Grass"). It's a ridiculous picture, only notable now for the array of young talent in the cast. ** from ****
